Friday, January 29, 2010

OK, you've all seen The Beastmaster, right? No, not the TV series, the original '82 movie. Horribly cheesy, yes. But it introduced the world to the wonder of Marc Singer in a loincloth. He's 62 today, btw. And still looking pretty good. You keep yourself in good shape, it definitely has long term benefits. So, back to Marc in a loincloth...

What, who, where was I? Yeah, The Beastmaster is a guilty pleasure. But I knew about Marc for years before it. Picture it. My junior year in Catholic all-boys high school. Years of look-but-don't-touch, sheer torture, you can only imagine. So anyway, we're doing Shakespeare. We'd already covered Romeo and Juliet, and saw the Zeffirelli film. Cried like a baby, of course. Now it was time for Taming of the Shrew. Our teacher, nice though she was, pushed it constantly by trying to hit on the students. The guys would even joke about it outside of class. Mind you, I'd love to have hit on the students, but they'd have hit back.

So she's going on and on about Petruchio in the TV production she was going to show us. How wide his shoulders were and how narrow his waist was and his codpiece was... No, really, I kid you not. Needless to say, I was looking forward to this, but obviously not trying to show it. She turns down the lights and turns on the TV.

And happy time began, for it was Marc in the '76 American Conservatory Theater production of Shrew. God, she was right. And it was also tremendously funny, as it was done Commedia style, very slapstick and bawdy. I think that it really helped me to like Shakespeare, so that later in life I became something of a Bard whore, doing allsorts of plays, and scenesfromplays, of his. Even got to portray him a couple of years, which was insanely cool and fun.

Back to school. After the viewing, I burned his name into my head. Marc Singer, Marc Singer, Marc Singer. He did For Ladies Only with Gregory Harrison in '81, but I didn't see that until years later. So when I saw The Beastmaster, I thought, "Ohmigod, it's Petruchio! And even yummier!!" Yeah, it wasn't Shakespeare, but it was Marc in a loincloth, on a giant movie screen! Proof that there is a God.

He went on right after to do V, which made him eligible to appear on Battle of the Network Stars. Marc in a speedo. More divine intervention.

His career wasn't anywhere as big as it deserved to be, but he did good work, and kept employed, which ain't always easy for an actor. Shout-out to Marc. Thanks, dude. You da man, man. More about da man at his official site.